Introduction

It's often said that Auroville is like a microcosm
of the world. And so it is. Represented within the project are virtually
all the major polarities found in global society, plus the inevitable
subtle tensions that exist as a result of them.

Melting pot

For example, there are men, women and children
here representing the East-West divide, the North-South gap, all sorts
of religious and cultural backgrounds, the rich and the poor, the literate
and the illiterate, the sophisticated and the unsophisticated, people
of different races and colour, from villages, towns and cities, from
democracies and socialist societies, from first, second and third world
countries, some easy to relate to, some not so easy, some hard workers
and some more lazy, all with different preferences and priorities as
they go about their daily lives - as smokers/non-smokers, drinkers/teetotalers,
vegetarians/non-vegetarians, meditators/non-meditators, office workers/foresters
and so on. The one thing that all these people have in common, however,
is that they have ALL voluntarily placed themselves in the melting pot
which is Auroville, and have accepted to work out their differences
in a new and higher way, changing themselves instead of trying to change
others as they seek to realise the ideal of human unity in diversity.

Representatives of humanity as a whole

We say "changing themselves", but what
does that mean? It doesn't mean trying to become the same as everyone
else around them. That would be a sort of unity in conformity. What
Auroville is attempting to achieve is something quite different, accepting
and allowing the full, rich and wonderful diversity of mankind to flourish
in complete freedom, while yet achieving an inner unity and experiencing
a unified and harmonious society. Sometimes the human mix seems too
much, too complex, as hidden tensions rise to the surface or old behaviour
patterns take over, but actually it is perfect, just as it should be,
if Auroville is to be a valid experiment representative of humanity
as a whole.

Inspired by The Dream, this is the ideal Auroville
aspires to realise.